Long non-coding RNA MIR4713HG aggravates malignant behaviors in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma via binding with microRNA let-7c-5p

Oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) is one of the most aggressive pathological types of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, and presents with rapid local invasion and metastasis. The present study confirmed that the long non-coding (lnc) RNA MIR4713HG was markedly upregulated in both OTSCC tissues and cell lines and associated with poor survival. The present study performed a series of experiments to investigate the impact of MIR4713HG on OTSCC and revealed that upregulation of MIR4713HG had a crucial role in promoting cell proliferation and metastasis of OTSCC cell lines both in vitro and in vivo. By applying bioinformatics analyses, micro RNA let-7c-5p was observed to physically bind with MIR4713HG, and the knockdown of let-7c-5p could counteract the influence of MIR4713HG on OTSCC. Furthermore, the present study demonstrated that let-7c-5p performed its regulating role in OTSCC via affecting the expression level of transmembrane channel like 7 (TMC7). In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that lncRNA MIR4713HG acted as a pro-tumor factor facilitating cell proliferation and metastasis of OTSCC via affecting the let-7c-5p/TMC7 signaling pathway, which presents as a promising therapeutic target in OTSCC.